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[Man of Paper]

Alternately, it could be representing the fact that the tile's resource is being used to feed the sentient cattle feeding your people.

[Cruxador]

What's the actual benefit to eating sapients anyway, besides horrifying other civilizations?

Game mechanics don't let you make a planet of non-sentient livestock. Because somehow farms aren't the same thing.

i think you can either process all immediately for a lot of food or keep them around as the equivalent of a farm.

It's not the equivalent of a farm. Farms are buildings. And you can put this pop on a farm building – and will want to, as food is the only thing they can produce.

So basically they're food that grows more food and can maintain itself and other livestock species with minimum outside influence.

Right, which makes sense until you consider the notion of a society with genetic, ecological, and agricultural knowledge beyond ours. Even without going to the biological ascension level, where you could presumably create plants that grow meat, you don't need trophic levels beyond the second. It should be pretty easy to set up an ecosystem that puts out loads of food with little effort simply because a single biosphere is a controlled system. It would be a big deal and take a bunch of effort, but even though the amount of planning and effort would be higher than, say, a dyson sphere, the amount of raw material and energy going into it would be comparatively tiny.

[Shadowlord]

That sounds much easier than making a Dyson sphere, actually. I read something that said that it's pretty much impossible to do, though I forget the reasons. (it suggested a Dyson swarm instead)

[Neonivek]

I will find it hilarious if these mega projects are easier to pull off than Teraforming... Teraforming the needlessly convoluted process (I think they might have fixed that up recently so it doesn't take forever and require rare resources)

[forsaken1111]

Considering the megastructures are locked behind ascension perks which you may or may not want, which require you to complete at least one full tradition to open up... Terraforming is loads easier.

[forsaken1111]

In case anyone is interested, I am planning an interactive LP for once Utopia and 1.5 comes out. The staging thread is here. I have a poll up now for race type and government authority, and later we'll be choosing ethics and such to round out the race.

[Skyrunner]

This update is named after Iain M. Banks!? That's awesome.

[Neonivek]

Terraforming's not convoluted. It's literally get tech, get energy, click on planet inside your borders, click terraform.

Get Tech, get accompanying tech, get terraforming resource, get the other terraforming resource, put up terraforming platform, start terraforming, wait a very long time with heavy drain.

Versus

Get tech, build it.

[forsaken1111]

Terraforming's not convoluted. It's literally get tech, get energy, click on planet inside your borders, click terraform.

Get Tech, get accompanying tech, get terraforming resource, get the other terraforming resource, put up terraforming platform, start terraforming, wait a very long time with heavy drain.

Versus

Get tech, build it.

Terraforming is literally get tech, click button. The resources just reduce the cost. There is no 'heavy drain'. The whole cost is up front.

If you need to change the world's hydration category, you need Terrestrial Sculpting. If you need to change the temperature, you need Atmospheric Manipulation. If you have both of those techs you can change any normally habitable planet to any other. For tomb worlds you also need Climate Restoration. If you want to make a planet into a Gaia, you need Gaia Creation.

Normal terraforming costs 2000 or 5000 energy and either 5 or 10 years, depending on the target climate and what you're starting with. Each resource you have access to (terraforming gasses/liquids) gives a 25% cost discount, so you can halve those costs if you have both available. You will probably NEED that discount for gaia world terraforming as that costs 10,000 energy without the discount and something like 40 years.

Terraforming is a mid-game tech for any normal application, with late game techs for gaia/tomb worlds. The main cost is time, as the energy costs aren't all that ruinous for a mid-game economy and can be heavily discounted. It's still a simple process.

Building a megastructure requires you to unlock the appropriate ascension perk, which requires you to finish a tradition, then you must build several sequential construction projects which each cost an assload of minerals. Ringworlds must be built in stages, finishing each section requiring 2 or 3 (i forget) projects. Dyson spheres are also 3-4 stages. It isn't all that complicated either, but much moreso than researching Terrestrial Sculpting and clicking terraform. The only simple one is habitats, and everyone gets those. They're just big space stations.

[Shadowlord]

I thought you need the resources to do anything at all. In fact, I'm 95% sure.

[forsaken1111]

I thought you need the resources to do anything at all. In fact, I'm 95% sure.

On release they might have been, but if so it was quickly changed

[IronyOwl]

I'm not sure it was quickly, but yes, they rejiggered terraforming techs and resources at some point. It used to be that liquids were necessary to moisten the planet, and gasses were required to dry it. I think this was back when habitation techs were a thing, and so you also needed the required hab tech... I think. I believe they mentioned that was the reason you couldn't terraform uninhabitable planets: They had no associated techs for you to acquire.

[forsaken1111]

Ah, it was changed with the patch that accompanied Leviathans.

[Baffler]

As-is you can't actually store enough energy to do any terraforming without having any gases or liquids to make the process cheaper, so while there isn't a hardcoded requirement that you have some, the way the cost calculation works ends up forcing you to anyway.

[forsaken1111]

Yes you can.... Basic terraforming just takes 2000 or 5000 energy. Same price as some enclaves deals. they do help to make terraforming tomb worlds cheaper and are necessary for Gaia worlds